Emotional to Irrational – The Winning Logic of Donald Trump

Where do I start? The land of the brave, and unfortunately free to say and do absolutely whatever comes to mind. If you have been a follower of Missing / Perspective from the beginning, you know that freedom is at the top of my list of reasons that I love America. Freedom of speech and expression is a rare gem that gives us a true advantage over most countries. Even our 1st world allies do not practice freedom of expression as openly and freely as we do here. However, with this freedom there is “speech” that I hear that disgusts me and I often disagree with it especially out of news media’s mouth (i.e. CNN and Fox News).

So now that it is election season, and a new candidate announces daily, I guess it’s time to talk a little politics. I would like to enjoy my summer, and not have to talk about politics with you, but sometimes life isn’t fair. A number of people haved asked me about: Donald John Trump. I find him entertaining, because well, he’s entertaining. And yes, his comments about Mexicans were offensive and inappropriate for a number of reasons. For one, using absolutes as if every Mexican immigrant is a rapist is inexcusable, and to some extent, the comments could apply to a segment of every ethnic demographic. So let’s be clear, what Donald is trying to say, that there are illegal immigrants that come to America that are bad and commit crimes, and we want them to stop coming here. But that’s not WHAT he said. And the angry people in his audience just cheered him on as he said those ridiculous comments. I wonder were they really listening. Maybe… but we as Americans are learning to live in absolutes and not discerning the issues.

Politico tried to explain the angry GOP support last week with their article, “Donald Trump and the Angry GOP)” . They tried to articulate, much better I might add, what Donald Trump and his followers believe:

“Immigration reform” allies like to say, a land of immigrants. But it is not a land of endless immigration from one culture that is different than ours and in many ways far less successful. Most immigrants from Mexico, no doubt, are good, hardworking people seeking a chance to better their circumstance in America. But they are not Americans. And in the numbers they are coming, the serious concern is that they are not easily assimilated. Other cultures are supposed to augment ours, not replace it”(Source)

You might not agree with the whole statement, but it’s true. At some point, we do have to be stricter and prevent others from coming into our country freely. HOWEVER, the way we go about having the conversation is important. I think it’s legitimate to be concerned about illegal immigration. But we cannot forget that we are talking about people. So I am glad that Donald Trump and his people are angry, and there are reasons to be angry, but you can’t just say anything in anger. Being legitimately angry about one fact doesn’t mean your anger gets to be all encompassing. Case and Point: Donald’s comments on John McCain’s hero status.

That’s right folks, Donald had the audacity to talk about John McCain. If you know me, I have a strong affinity for John McCain, if you have read any part of his story as a POW, it’s truly remarkable. One of my highlights of law school (because they are few and far in between) is when we got to perform speeches in trial class, and of course, I performed an excerpt from John McCain’s book. He is a true American, don’t even get me started. Now, that doesn’t mean he is perfect, and that he hasn’t made mistakes, made some REALLY bad decisions (Sarah Palin comes to mind), but never in my life did I think anyone would question his service.

*Enters idiot Donald Trump*

Well, if you missed it, Donald essentially said that John McCain wasn’t a war hero, and he so flippantly stated that “he likes his heroes not to be captured”. Oh really, Donald, don’t we all. I didn’t realize your definition of heroes involved capes and spandex, i.e. the Avengers, because you know in the REAL world there are no super heroes, you cannot help your fate at times. Look at Chris Kyle, a war hero, unfortunately, was killed by another human. I know it’s unrelated, but my point, is that we are human and can be vulnerable at any point in time, such as your plane being shot down in ENEMY territory. Not to mention, we could compare Trump’s ability to be a hero if he had not deferred 5 times. That’s right folks, this joker who is calling out someone else’s service, had 5 deferments, not 1, not 2, not 3, not 4, BUT 5.

Now, maybe if it stopped there, I would be mostly mad at Donald Trump, and I probably wouldn’t be writing this blog post, but the next day when Donald Trump asked if he owes McCain an apology. Of course, he doesn’t. Stand by your words. I think it’s stupid that people ask people to take words back, I get that people say things in the spur of the moment, but if you’re running for President, get it together. But Donald makes an honest and correct point about why he wouldn’t take it back and that he didn’t think it would affect his race, “When I left the room, it was a total standing ovation,” said Trump. “It was wonderful to see. Nobody was insulted”. (source)

And that made me stop think. He’s right. He’s wrong about a lot of things, but not this one. See Donald Trump has been wanting to run for President since 1988, and in 2015, America is at a place where they want to hear someone say the crazy things they think in their home. Emotional? Yes. Irrational? HELL YES. I actually think there is more to the story that’s not being articulated. See the reality is that John McCain, who has served in Congress since 1982 (before I was even born) needs to have a seat. Since his first campaign, there has been a number of changes in America. I would agree it is probably time for him to retire from public service, and it doesn’t just rest with McCain. I think there are a number of political figures who have outlasted their stay and are unwilling to challenge the status quo. The reality is that people are angry, so angry that they can’t see straight. So there are issues with John McCain, sure, but not about his POW record, but why are we confusing the two? When did we get so emotional? Oh wait, we’ve always been emotional, but we have moved from emotional to irrational. Well, whenever that day happened, was the day Donald Trump decided that he could capitalize on this anger. So I am not mad at the “the Donald”, I am mad at America for getting us to this point.

So what’s next?

Just when people want to stop paying attention, because the rhetoric such as this is maddening, we cannot. We have to get involved and we cannot give up. We have to be emotional, but rational beings. We must look for the solutions when the emotions are gone, or not be misguided by our emotions. It’s almost as if the country needs a counseling session. So let’s sit down and talk!

Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future. – John F. Kennedy

What are your thoughts about Donald Trump? or the field of the candidates? Let’s talk (Comment below)